It’s 11:21 PM on Thursday night and I’m looking at this special on NBC right now about Katrina and it’s___ just__ fucking___ unbelievable. Having heard complaints all day about the slow response of government I was sort of negative about their competence until I head (and saw the video of) the stories the New Orleans Police Chief told about what going on and how his men were just as pressed for supplies as the other victims of the storm, and were having to chase armed looters through empty buildings.
It occurred to me that no matter how well prepared you are, in a disaster of this stunning magnitude no one is really capable of competently tackling the scope of the problems. In that context blaming local police, and the state and national authorities for not moving fast enough is kind of pointless as resources are strained to the limit, and the biggest problem is not having supplies but getting them there.
Don’t we need to cut the authorities some slack on this issue? They’re doing the best the can.
I can’t respond to any specific issues, but if there were steps they should have taken to stop this, then the criticism is absolutely fair. I’ve heard criticisms that are unfair, too, but I don’t think all of the responses have been (or will be) unjustified.
I don’t think this is turning out to be America’s great shining “finest hour” moment.
Granted, it’s early in the day yet to really know how history will judge, but what strikes me as being really obvious is the utter and hopeless lack of coordination between various agencies, the federal and state governments, municipalities, law enforcement agencies, etc. Individually they all seem to be trying to do something but it doesn’t look like there was a plan to deal with this. It doesn’t look like there’s a plan NOW. It doesn’t even appear as if anyone’s centralizing the damage assessment and intelligence.
The other night there was a quick blurb on CNN about how many federal agencies were coordinating relief effort. They cited nine different departments and agencies. Well, there’s your problem, I thought.
So I think criticism that the relief effort is going poorly, in general, is merited. I think it’s factuall wrong to say any given agency isn’t trying their best. They ARE trying their best, but I think there might be a real problem with there being many Chiefs and few Indians. All your efforts are in vain with a problem of this magnitude if nobody’s got a central plan.
That said, from the sounds of it the people in the victimized area are not rising to the occasion, either. I was kind of hoping you’d hear tales of cooperation, of people helping one another, and instead there’s armed gangs in the Superdome.
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. And given that I’m sat here warm and dry and hydrated, and obviously not anywhere slogging through flood waters with a box of emergency rations and medical supplies in my arms, who am I to say?
But if I can be armchair quarterback, I have to say it doesn’t look like it’s going well. I mean…as opposed to, say, the tsunami, there was a LOT of warning about what could happen. And we are supposed to have resources, certainly we should when we know that worst might happen. But now we’re hearing that the relief centers are without food and water and medical supplies. I could see not being able to get to everyone, obviously, but at the centers where they were supoosed to have help available? (And while the shooting incident was appalling, I don’t see that accounting for all the lack.)
Beyond that I have to wonder about the evacuation plans. Yeah, there are people who refuse to leave but WERE there any provisions made for those who might not have the resources to leave? Considering we had some idea of what was likely to happen? That certainly would have been helpful now. (And I ask because I don’t know what the evacuation plans were.)
All I can say is it looks like something is not going right.
I think the NO police, fire, emergency crews and doctors are, by and large, doing the best they can with the available resources. From what I can gather, most of these men and women are trying… but there’s just so much to do, and they are really very few people with only slightly more resources than the average citizen.
The federal government, however, has thus far failed miserably. FEMA and the DHS, who are supposedly formed and funded for just this type of situation have not moved fast enough and have not moved enough. People are dieing from lack of water, lack of food, and there’s just no excuse. The people in charge of those agencies have no other reason for their job except to be prepared for emergencies, and they weren’t prepared.
I do not want to see dead babies because mothers could not get food and water or medicine or any other damn thing. I have already seen enough dead people because of this. I know there are more bodies to be discovered, but the people charged with emergency relief need to be fuckingmoving at breakneck speed to ensure that no one else loses their life unnecessarily.
It is unconscionable that we have 160,000 troops and all attendant equipment halfway around the world to help the fucking Iraqis, and our own are left wanting.
Make no mistakes about it, this is a situation that is of natural origin but nevertheless one that our Homeland Security was (is) supposed to be dealing with. They and the Bush administration have, once again, shown their utter and complete incompetence in dealing with the situation, After all, we have Bush going on national television explaining how much he is doing to ensure that the federal government will not let national energy (read gasoline) supplies be a cause for concern. Where the f**k is he coming from? Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot that the areas currently experiencing almost all the anguish happen to be overwhelmingly African-American and poor. Not many Republicans there I guess.
They need to drop 10,000 soldiers in New Orleans right now. CNN reported only 1,400 National Guard soldiers have been sent so far. That’s deplorable. Our government should be ashamed.
Until they restore order, it won’t be safe for emergency personnel to get in to help people and get them out. They will continue to suffer, and some will die needlessly, as they wait and wait for help to come.
I can’t help but wonder whether the government would have sent more help more quickly if it had been a wealthier or whiter city.
I just heard on CNN that the National Guardsman there are acting under orders from local government and are only there to assist local law enforcement, many of whom have reportedly (CNN) abandoned their posts. They are not there as a military presence. Apparently, the military isn’t there yet, but is expected to arrive tomorrow.
I’ll be interested to see if any heads roll at FEMA after this colossal clusterf&$k. This agency is funded by tax dollars to be prepared to handle emergency situations. They have so far shown nothing of the sort. Just what do they do?
And Bush saying “don’t buy gas if you don’t need it.” Well, duh.
Exactly. They had enough forewarning to stock the Superdome and Convention Center with a shitload of water and food and medical supplies and some way to cope with the toilets not working. Why wasn’t this done?
People who could have left should have. They only have themselves to blame. BUT New Orleans has a ton of really poor people. No cars, no money, no way to get out and nowhere to go. What could they have done? And of course the sick, elderly and infirm. They should have had busses going through the poorer neighborhods, picking up people for free and talking them to shelters. Why wasn’t this done? And where could anyone expect these people to go and stay for weeks or months with no transportation or money? Massive refugee camps should have been set up ahead of time.
I’m really angry about this whole thing. I hate to say it BUT does anyone think this would be happening if this occurred in a wealthier white city? Look at the pictures and footage - 95% of the stranded victims are black.
I think FEMA’s hands are somewhat tied until the military can bring law and order to the area. They can’t send in rescue personnel until it is safe for them. They tried to evacuate people from Charity Hospital just now, but after boating them to the pickup area, the vehicle wasn’t there. It isn’t safe enough to stay and wait, so they had to return the patients to Charity.
I’m just sick about what’s happening there right now. It’s shameful. I can’t stop watching the coverage …
Large Marge has a good point about lawlessness interfering. But if you are dropping supplies where they are needed, not only is it safer in case of lawlessness, but the occasion for lawlessness is lessened.
As far as I’m concerned, the government fully deserves the harshest criticism for their response to this catastrophe. Yeah, there are things you can’t do instantly - you can’t get a hospital ship there until it can sail there - but the basics of food and water are readily available, and there is no excuse for the people whose job is to provide emergency management failing so miserably at their job.
There is so much mayhem, rapes, lawlessness and even murder that the emergency management people’s ability to perform has trickled down to a snail’s pace. But I do agree that if sufficient numbers of troops parachutted over the city with shoot to kill orders, the ability to help the people who need medical care, food and water would improve.
Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out? There would, of course, be far fewer people who need medical care, food and water, so it would improve the ability to provide that.
I am, in general, approving of harsh measures to stop the looting. However, not only could the anarchy have been lessened by an appropriate and swift response by the governmental departments charged with that response, your idea of an appropriate and swift response is simply bloodthirsty. Heads should roll for allowing New Orleans to come to this pass.
Same thing happened in Iraq right after the war - not enough troops on the ground to maintain order and distribute supplies, rebuild infrastructure, etc. And in both cases it was totally predictable that they’d be necessary.
Maybe this is what happens when you get antigovernment ideologues running the government. They have a vested interest in proving that government can’t do anything right. They’re certainly succeeding in that.
The government is really the only body who can be criticised surely. You can’t criticise the weather…though there was plenty of warning Katrina was coming. You can’t criticise local police, surely they have the worlds hardest job right now, you can’t blame people waiting in filth and hunger. You can’t blame people looting for food.
You can blame those looting for property…is their any proof that they wern’t just the local crims all at work together? They need to be in jail YES, but LONG AFTER people need to be rescued.
When you have people shooting at rescue personnel, shooting back may be needed.
I think they were prepared for a “normal” Hurricane aftermath.
With the levee break rescue adn releaif efforts are made much more difficult.
Why they don’t air drop some food / water is beyond me.
IMHO Some of the initial criticism was overblown, but as time passess it becomes more justified.
What’s this I’ve been hearing about necessary improvements to the dikes having sat on various high-ranking people’s desks for some time now?
Also, a few people have made the observation “well, they would send in the National Guard, but they happen to be otherwise occupied at the moment.” Can it be shown that required numbers of National Guards are sapped by their being in Iraq?